South Asian Biomes
South Asia includes regions south of the Himalayan Mountains bounded by the Indian Ocean, West Asia, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia. The countries within South Asia are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. South Asia is the most densely populated region in the world with more than 1.7 billion people in 5.1 million square kilometers of territory. This article considers the biomes south of the Himalayan Mountains, including the Himalayas and the archipelagoes such as the Maldives-Lakshwadeep-Chagos in the Indian Ocean and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands off Southeast Asia since these are included within the territory of India. Treatment is challenging due to the inherent complexity of the natural ecosystems, the variation in quality of the source materials, and the lack of information on certain ecosystems. Limits between biomes are difficult to delineate due to strong climatic gradients that juxtapose different ecosystems within short distances. These issues are discussed in the respective sections.